Baby Announcement and Gender Reveal Mani

So excited to announce that we are expecting a little baby 1st of March 2017! #babygirl #babylykke #babyannouncement

A photo posted by Dina Ramse (@secretarysnailart) on Oct 10, 2016 at 1:39pm PDT

For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you might have heard the good news already.
I am expecting a baby girl the 1st of March 2017.

As some of you have noticed I have been absent from the blog for a while. Pregnancy so far has not been the easiest on me, and I feel like I have been running back n' forth to the hospital and home for months now.
At first it was breathing issues, then a severe chest infection, and lately a slipping disc from being inactive and not looking out for my spine.

I am getting a lot better now, and the baby belly has dropped a little so I can breath easier. Making my life a bit more manageable.

I just wanted to log in here and let you all know what's going on in my life. I have done a couple of hauls both nail polish and nail art items that I am excited to show you all.

Bundlemonster Occasions Collection - Family Ties Mani 

For this mani I used Barry M - Silk - Orchid as a base colour, for the stamping I used Bundlemonster Occasions Collection - Family Ties in BM-S231 and BM-S232 in Wet N Wild - Black Creme and filled in with Barry M - Gelly . Acai Smoothie and Barry M - Gelly - Fondant making a decal for the ring and middle finger.

If you are going to / or have a Baby Shower, this set from Bundlemonster is the only set I have seen that delivers what you need for such an occasion.

I have heard the Moyra - Childhood might be a good stamping plate for this purpose as well, but I have not seen or heard of any other stamping plates that has these kind of images.

I absolutely adore the finished look, and been wearing it for about 2 weeks now.

Inner Peace

The story that follow is a short glimpse of my life as a young teenager, and how I learned to meditate. If you skip further down I will show you a manicure that I did using Bundlemonster BMXL-175 Work It stamping plate. The stamping plate has images related to Yoga and Meditation

When I was 15 years old my mother took me to a camp for a week. Not only was it our first camping trip together, it was also the first time we really sat down and talked about our issues and I started unravel the mess of stories that made up my biological family.
If you have read some of my other stories on here, you might know that I am a foster-child, and that I moved to my own flat when I was 14 years old.

I think my mother had wanted to open up for a long time, she just didn't quite know where to start. The NA -camp was for her a healing place, and she wanted to go there with me, partially for backup and moral support, but also because she wanted to create a bond between us and get to know "the real me".


Thinking back, I remember the island we went to, as filled with broken souls and the smell of salt water.

The days were filled with meetings, some open meetings and some closed meetings (meetings only for people with an addiction). I ended up attending all the open meetings, and was even asked to host one myself. There was a lot of openness in the meetings, and I think we all touched each others hearts the week we where there. I certainly learned a lot.

As a person used to get up early in the morning, I quickly discovered that there was only one other person there who did the same. Each morning he would get up, wash his face in the cold water and greet the sun as it rose lazily on the sky. It did not take long until I joined in on his morning ritual and he taught me some basics about Meditation and Yoga.

When you picture a Yogi in your head you might picture an old man with semi long hair and a bushy beard, and that is exactly how this man looked. Later I was to meet another Yogi that looked nothing like the first. This one was in his late 20's with handsome sun bleached hair, a strong but lean body sitting on a pile of pillows in Camden Market, London. That is an entirely different story.

I was seeking for something back then, and these two helped me find it.

“You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day — unless you’re too busy. Then you should sit for an hour.” -Zen proverb 

 For today's manicure I used Barry M - Cream Soda as a base, and stamped using Barry M - Ballerina. Barry M - Ballerina is from the core line and has therefor the black cap, be warned that not all of the polishes in the core line from Barry M stamp as well as the Gelly line.

Barry M - Cream Soda with Bundlemonster BMXL-175 stamped using Barry M - Ballerina over. 

I hope you enjoyed my little story, and nail art.

Happy Blogiversary

Can you believe it's been 4 years already?!

It all started 5 years ago, but I didn't plunge into the blogging world for another year as I wanted to lay the grounds first, and get better at painting my nails.

Back then, I didn't even know there was such a thing as nail bloggers, but the first year was very educational; I found the nail polish community and stayed ever since.



My first polish as a newly initiated polish-aholic was Depend - 124. There is barely any left in the bottle, the tags are all worn out from the multiple uses, but I have loved this polish.

My favourite way of wearing this polish was as a "funky French", a step further than just your ordinary French manicure.

You can see the original post here.

Depend - 124 

One of the first stamping nail art looks that I did on this blog was of Sinful Color - Neon Melon, with some dotticure and again, a funky French. Already here you can see my trusted Wet N Wild - Black Creme for all things stamping related.

You can see the original post here.

Neon Yellow with black French tips

My goal when I started this, was to do about 200 posts each year with nail arts, swatches and hauls, I have stuck to this goal since I started and very happy with how that has turned out.

This year I have passed the 1.000 mark on visitors a day, a doubling from last year, something I am very happy about. Mainly because it tells me that people like seeing what I do. 

This year has seen the return of the above mentioned "funky French", a nail art look I did a lot in my first year on the blog. It was also one of those looks that ended up being this year most visited blogpost. 

I used a lot of polishes in this look and the accent decal had me bent over it carefully placing each polish for a good hour or so.  You can see the original post over here.

Barry M - Gelly - Paprika with Qgirl - 032 (from BornPrettyStore) stamped over in Barry M - Superdrug Limited Edition Yellow, Barry M - Vintage Violet, Barry M - Gelly - Mustard, Barry M - Gelly - Mango, Barry M - Gelly - Chilli, Barry M - Gelly - Dragon, Barry M - Beery I/C, Barry M - Fuschia, Barry M - Gelly - Blueberry, Barry M - Gelly - Blue Grape and Barry M - Gelly - Plum. 

Another nail art look that has been loved by the readers was my Russian Flowers manicure, you can see that post over here. The look was the stark opposite of the one above, while the above mentioned nail art look had a lot of polishes in it and stamping involved, this one had only two polishes in a subtle gradient and some water decals. Proving that sometimes less is more.

Misa - Russian Sage gradient with Yes Love - 27 - Shiny Glitter. With BornPrettyStore flowers

Another post that has been viewed a lot this year has been my swatch of Color Club - Barely There you can see the original post here. We all need a palate cleanser every now and then, and this polish seems to do the trick for many of you out there. 

Swatch: Color Club - Barely there

I want to thank you all for your continued support all these years, thanks to all of you who have been here from the start, and those who have joined along this journey. 

I hope there will be many more.

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection Nail Art

My entire flat is filled with bags and boxes of stuff. Most of the nail room has already been packed down and is ready to go to the new place this weekend, to my new Nail Cave.
I am super excited about getting a bit larger room for my nail stuff, and not having to share it when we have visitors. At the moment, my nail cave is in the spare bedroom, but in the new house, we are swapping the large double bed we have for guests now, for a super comfy sofa bed.

Since moving is hard on the nails I have filed them a bit shorter, and made sure there is a nail file and plenty of cuticle oil ready for me at the new place. Cardboard boxes always dries up my cuticles.

I know I have already written a couple of times about how I move and travel with my nail polishes, if you want an update and a bit through post about different packing ideas and methods let me know. For the past 4 years I have moved  about 10 times across 5 different countries, bringing nail polishes with me on planes, boats, trains, cars and carried them on my back in a rucksack.
I have found some great ways to bring with me my entire collection which is now counting around 700 polishes, when I first moved to Wales from Norway I had "only" 150 polishes...

I wanted to show you two different nail art looks that I have done lately, between all the packing and arranging stuff for the move.

Opulent Essences - Taste The Rainbow Collection (neon polish)

First one is a drybrush look, which I did using the Taste The Rainbow Collection from Opulent Essences that I purchased a while back.

Neon Drybrush Nail Art using Opulent Essences Orange, Strawberry and Lemon over Sinful Color - Snow Me White

I used Sinful Color - Snow Me White as a base for this look and a drybrush technique using Opulent Essences - Strawberry, Opulent Essences - Lemon, and Opulent Essences - Orange.

I have been too hard on my nails when packing, so sadly this is the only picture I got of this look. It's still a pretty mani, so I wanted to share with you all.

Sinful Color - Snow Me White polish base and my food.

The next look I wanted to show today is a look that ended up as a total fail.
It's a fail because I decided to add some animal prints to the look, and had this fantastic idea of making "Cougar Nails". Sadly, the animal prints I decided to use, destroyed everything.

@opulent_essences Taste The Rainbow Collection using Strawberry and Orange for a gradient and some animal print stickers from Bundlemonster. The stickers turned the mani all gloopy, so this is the only picture of my gorgeous gradient.. #secretarysnailart #Bundlemonster #nailsticker #gradient #nailart #nailartaddict #nailartoohlala #opulentessences #neonpolish #neonpinkpolish #animalprint #neonorangepolish #neonpolish #indiepolishuk #indiepolish

A photo posted by Dina Ramse (@secretarysnailart) on May 18, 2016 at 10:15am PDT

Before Christmas I purchased some stuff from Bundlemonster, and I threw in a Surprise Bundle with Nail Art stuff. I had chosen to use the stickers (MP019) that was in this bundle of fun.

I applied them like you would with any other nail art stickers and seal with a topcoat. Didn't really think much about it, and let them dry for 30 min before adding another layer of top as the stickers where still sticking through the topcoat. Not long after the stickers started wrinkling, and turned gummy, and turned not just the topcoat and the stickers gummy, but the entire gradient underneath and the white undie as well(!)
It would not dry.
After 5 hours I noticed that it looked like it was sliding off my nails...
So I removed it all.
I was gutted, because I was so happy with my gorgeous gradient, and had not taken pictures of the steps. Needless to say, I was not in the mood to sit down and do another gradient.


What are some of your nail art related horror stories?

Get ready for Autumn / Fall with me

It is that time of the year again. The weather is getting colder, and you start longing for tea or a cup of hot cocoa, cosy sweaters, and scarves.

You might find yourself reaching for more orange and brown shades in your manicures and clothes.
Maybe you prefer more vampy shades on your nails now that it is getting darker around us.
Make plans for movie night with the girls, or board games night with the kids.

What ever you have planned for this autumn I wish you the very best. May your nails never chip, your cuticles be soft and the weather not too cold.

Coordinate your manicure with your favourite take-away coffee cup.

The preparations 

As I live in Northern Ireland now, and no longer in Norway, it means that the preparations for autumn are a bit different that I have been used to.  I still have to pull out all my scarves, and I practically live in my parkas, and wear woolen socks at home all the time.

I always make sure I got plenty of moisturizers around the home, office and in my bag. I use argan oil whenever I can and got a bottle in my bag and one at my desk at home. I have decanted some Lush - Lemony Flutter in a sampler sized jar that I use with the argan oil. First I apply Lemony Flutter and after that has soaked in, I apply the oil.

Lush - Lemony Flutter - Cuticle Butter

As it is not always practical to use oils in the office, since I more or less use the keyboard all day, I have a jar of Burt's Bees - Hand Salve Baume Pour Les Mains. I apply this maybe 1-4 times a day depending on the humidity, if any of my coworkers are running a fan, or windows being left open.
The struggle is real. I will sit here with woolen socks up over my knees and someone will sit across me with a fan on them in a T-shirt.

I find that if it is raining, I dry out a lot more, and the only thing that can save my hands from cracking up is Body Shop - Hemp Hand Protector or if it has already started to crack up Body Shop - Hemp Intensive Hand Protector.


Autumn / Fall manicures

I know some of my readers are published and unpublished authors, and hobby writers. Last year I did a manicure that I named " A Writers Manicure". This is for all of you attending NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this year. November is fast approaching. My dear friend Mishka has found a book that can help you write a first draft in 30 days effectively. 

NaNoWriMo manicure - A writers choice

I have been diving in my Archive and pulled out some forgotten designs that will take you in to Autumn. From a Movie Night manicure, traditional autumnal colors like burnt orange, mustard and green, to brighter choices with swirls and free hand flowers (Prado Red Sunflowers).

Autumnal manicures by Secretary's Nail Art

If stamping is not your choice, I also gathered some that only requires a dotting tool, like this fruit basket manicure, two polishes and a sponge for this green chrome with golden tips or just a glitter topper. Maybe these will get your ideas spinning. 

Autumnal manicures by Secretary's Nail Art

Sometimes we don't have the time for nail art at all, and opt for single colour instead. For those of you, I gathered my favorites for Autumn in this collage. Dark greens, vampy shades, or simple black with glitter.

Autumnal nail polish shades by Secretary's Nail Art

Let me know in the comments below what your favorites are!
If you want to know which polish was used for any of these pictures, just ask and I will answer as soon as I can. Make sure you click the "notify me" box to the right when adding your comment, so that you will see my answer.

The Peanutized Secretary version

Re-purposing Nail Polish

Recent events regarding the whole Mentality Polish thing has people talking about throwing their polishes out. As a person who treasure our planet, I would hate to see nail polishes on the landfill. No matter how bad they are.

I have three suggestions for you.

1. Save nail polishes you want to get rid of for Zoya's Earth Day Promo
2. Send them to your local Household Hazardous Waste Facility (how to properly dispose of nail polish)
3. Re-purpose them!

I love DIY, so this was the perfect opportunity for me to talk a bit more about using nail polishes in DIY projects. Yay for creative outlets!! 

Re-purposing nail polish into gorgeous rings.

For this project I bought some 12 mm glass cabuchans from Ebay, and painted them with different polishes. Ones they had dried, I attached them to rings that I also found on Ebay.

All in all this project cost me less than 10 dollars, and I got cabuchans and ring bases to make a heap-load more. 

So get your glitters, and nail polishes out. 

Now this is only one idea on what to do with nail polishes, below I had added a list of other ideas and links to where you can find out more about the craft project. I hope you like it. Non of the links below are mine, and I take no credit for the ideas, I am just spreading the word. 

• DIY Wire tree with nail polish leaves/flowers
• Dragon Eggs with Nail polish (suggested by Brandy Ann Petrick)
• Marbled Easter Eggs
• Jewelry Craft (rings, pendants, earrings)
• Nail Polish Keys (remember to have a protecting layer on top after finishing painting the key.
• DIY Water marble room decor 
• Unique shoes - nail polish heels
• Holiday ornaments
• Nail polish flowers  or Nail polish - flower crown
• DIY Phone Case
• Pretend makeup for Kids
• Bracelets 

last but not least:

• How to clean your bottles for re-purposing

I hope you have enjoyed my this little post about Re-purposing Nail Polish. 

It took quite some time to collect all the ideas into one post, and find good YouTube videos on how to do them for you all.
That's what you have a Secretary for after all. 

Please leave a comment below if you have some tips and ideas that should be in this post. 

My Nail Storage and Nail-station/space - Update

With a little update on my nail -station/space cave.
It's a part office, part hobby room and guest room.

The bed is huge and comfortable, and the room is still large enough to give me an almost 3 meter long desk with space for my Helmers and computer. Everything a girl will love.

I still got to get a proper chair for the room, but for now, I am using a dining chair.

As you can see, I currently got 2 Helmers, and I will be picking up a third one in a week. Overflow...
Vacation shopping does that to you. Haha.

My Helmers used to be decorated, but when I moved from Bristol, UK, I went back to plain Helmers. I actually thing they grey looks great with the white desk and the grey-blue walls in this room .

The room is not quite done, but it is certainly getting there. In the two top drawers in my Helmers I got nail art supplies and base- and topcoats. Then follows my nail polishes in alphabetic order after Brand. So A England to Barry M's in the second drawer, followed by the likes of Catrice in the third, and so on. I also got 3 drawers with makeup, and my makeup brushes are on my desk, as well as this cute cast iron mirror I found at Ikea.

I also have three glasses of nail polish swatching sticks on my desk. I use them to come up with new designs, and combinations.

Under my keyboard there is a desk protector from Ikea, I use it to make decals, and test polishes for stamping. I know a lot of people are raving about the UberChic mat at the moment, I might get it, but for now, this works great for me.

I also have a small notebook, in there I write down what polishes I use for what manicures, often when I sit down to do my nails, I don't write the post the same day, rather a couple of days later, so in order to remember the polishes and the plates used (while being able to clear up my desk after each nail polishing session), I write them down here as I go.

I have come a long way from having this as my nail area.

My office/nail area back when I started this blog in 2011.

My Nail Station in Bristol 2014.

If you want to check out my Nail Cave/Station History, you can check out these posts.

2012 - Nail Station
2012 - Swatching wheels
2012 - Nail Stickers Album
2012 - Nail Art Boxes

2014 - Nail Station

2015 - Swatching sticks

Secretary's Nail Art Goes on a Vacation

I have been on a little vacation, and took some cool snaps of my nails during the trip.
I wanted to show it to you all, as they show just how gorgeous this nail polish is.

As I did my nails the night before leaving on the trip, there is not the usual swatch picture of this polish. I am sure it will return to the blog with some nail art on it, but for now, there are only these pictures.

Ever since I saw it for the first time, this has been a huge lemming of mine, and I was so happy that I managed to grab one on my latest Rainbow Connection UK haul.

Without further ado, here is Dance Legend - Solar Eclipse.

Dance Legend - Solar Eclipse  - Natural Light

 The first picture is taken in the car that we rented for our Castle Hunt - Northern Ireland trip. Prior to leaving we made a map in Google Maps showing all the Castles around Northern Ireland, and the goal is to see as many of them as possible within the year. Armed with a Sat Nav, a list over coordinates to Castles in the North, and plenty of coffee for a long day, we headed out.

Dance Legend - Solar Eclipse  - in Natural Light by the Giant Causeway in Northern Ireland

Dance Legend - Solar Eclipse  - in Natural Light with a view to Rathlin Island in the background

Dance Legend - Solar Eclipse  - in Natural Light holding Ice Cream

Dark skies was gathering on the sky, and it was time to turn in for the night. We found a lovely looking B&B. Soon after we discovered the name of the place...

Dance Legend - Solar Eclipse  - in indirect natural light at the Sleep Hollow - Bed and Breakfast.
Disclaimer: No headless horsemen where seen.

We survived the night at the B&B, and turned our noses back home, after stopping by 4 more castles on our way back.
I hope you have enjoyed this little post with my gorgeous new polish Dance Legend - Solar Eclipse, and I am looking forward to showing you some fantastic designs that I have come up with while travelling.

Moving and Transporting Nail Polish and Helmers

The story about how I packed with me two Helmers filled with nail polish and moved to another country.

This is not the first time that I have moved with nail polish in my suitcase.
In 2012 I moved to England, then in 2014 to Spain and again in 2014 to Northern Ireland which is where I live now.

I don't have the biggest suitcase, it was a cheap one I found at a Factory Outlet for £ 25, and I bought two of those. My suitcase is however large enough to hold the sides of two Helmers, and about 7 drawers.

I have never broken a single bottle during transportation, and I have moved flying, driving, and by sea, so I have tried it all.

I made this post a while ago about the boxes that I used to store my polishes in, and that I also use for transportation. They have held up fantastically.

This is how it often starts when I move, I fill up all the boxes, and add some bubble wrapping and papers to the top before closing the lids.

Here is a more indepth look to the process of packing, that I made when I moved to Spain.

So now that we have covered how to pack all the babies, how about that Helmer?

I took the Helmer apart, and stacked the sides in my suitcase. I added some books to utilize all the space in the suitcase. Then I took off the front and the handles of all the drawers. I stacked and taped the fronts together, and stacked the drawers in each other. I managed to get 4 together at the most.

My epic Paint Skills will explain how this is done.

When this is all done, the suitcase looks like this:

How to move with Nail Polish

Close the suitcase, and you are ready to move.
All in all, I used two suitcases,  and one "carry-on" sized suitcase to move everything, on top of that I had a racksack filled with clothes and kitchen stuff. Now let me remind you that I got 450 nail polishes in those.

If you have any questions about moving with nail polish, feel free to ask me.

(TAG) Confessions Of A Nail Polish Addict

Hi everyone!

I saw this tag over at Brit Nails , and I decided to jump on it, and do one as well.
If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged.


1. What nail are you wearing on your nails (and toes) right now?
Right now, I am wearing Barry M - Silk - Forest. I have had it for a while and was feeling in the mood for something a bit darker than what I have been sporting lately. Swatch will be up soon-ish.


As for my toes...

7 months ago, I had a little accident involving a knife and my big toes. I was doing dishes and it slipped out of my hand, and fell tip first on my toe, just below the cuticle line, bounched off and landed on my other toe. What are the odds?!

It didn't cut off anything but I got a huge bruise under my nails, and they have been black every since. They are finally getting close to having grown all the way out, but there is a huge dent between the old nail and the new one coming out, So, to not make it noticeable I have hidden my toes ever since.

I just hope they will be fine for my holiday this summer...


2. What is one nail product you can't live without?
Lush Lemon Flutter, that stuff is seriously God-sent. It smells amazing, and feels great.

Lush - Lemon Flutter

3. What is your favorite nail polish brand (mainstream and indie)?
By looking at my collection I would have to say Barry M. I always get excited whenever they are coming out with a new collection, and it's the first shelf that I check out whenever I go to Boots.

I don't really have a lot of indies.. but I would have to say Cult Nails for that one. They have a special place in my heart, and makes me all giddy inside whenever I decided to wear it.


4. What kind of nail shape do you wear (short or long)?
My nails are somewhere between squoval and oval, with a little bit of free-edge. As I spend most my days in front of a computer, and do a lot of typing, it's hard on my tips.


5. What is your go-to color?
Living on the Emerald Isle, makes me lean towards picking green for my talons. I also have a weakness for purples and blues..


6. What is your favorite nail polish finish?
Cremes, most of my collection is based on cremes.


7. What's on your nail polish wish list?
I am trying to scout of more indies for my stash. There are so many great ones out there, and I am just getting on my feet financially after not having worked for 3 years, so I am trying to be careful, and take things slow.


8. When do you usually paint your nails?
After I have made dinner on weekdays, and in the morning with my morning-cuppa, and around lunchtimes when the sun is good for pictures.


9. What's your top nail tip that you swear by?
Moisturize. Like, ALL THE TIME.

I keep argan oil in a small polish bottle in the office, with Burt Bees Hand Salve, as the office is very drying on my nails and cuticles. And I have a small sampler size tub of Lush Lemon Flutter in my handbag, and at my desk and nail station at home.


10. What nail polish do you regret buying?
Without a doubt YSL - Bleu Majorelle.

Not that it isn't a great polish, it goes on like butter, and the cobalt blue is great, but the YSL gave me the worse stained nails I have ever seen. I also found some dupes for it, so it rests in it original box in my drawers.

YSL - Bleu Majorelle

11. Neons or pastels? Brights or darks?
I don't have a lot of neons and pastels, though lately I have been getting a lot more pastels than previously. Looking at my collection there is a huge variety in the shades that are present.


12. What is your holy grail white, black and neutral polish?
Sinful Color - Snow Me White. I am on my third bottle, and got several backups for it. I have tried several other pure whites, but I always fall back on this one.

Sinful Color - Snow Me White and Franken - EmOzean with black striper

Wet N Wild - Black Creme I love it for stamping, and since I never really wear black nail polish alone, it has only been used for stamping purposes or as undies for other polishes. It works great for that. If I was going to sport a black polish to wear alone, I would go with Essie - Licorice.

As for a nude, I am still working on finding my "holy grail" nude polish. I recently bought a whole load of them, as you might have noticed on my blog. There are plenty more to come.

Barry M - Matte - Vanilla  with flower stamp from BornPrettyStore - Y013

Barry M - Gelly - Lychee with black french tips and stamp from Moyou London Scholar Collection

13. What is one brand you want to try but haven't yet?
Dance Legends, Butter London, Hare, Delush Polish.. the list goes on and on.

To travel with Nail Polish

I have been wanting to do a post like  this for a while, but I needed some good pictures and more experience on the subject before plunging into a long post.
We all have days when we stand there with our suitcases, packing for a trip; long or short, where we want to take with us ALL THE POLISH!
Well. We can't take it all with us, but we can take a large bunch.

As some of you regular readers know, I have been travelling a lot these past 2 years.
I moved to UK, and now I have temporarily moved to Spain.

So, jow have I managed to keep up on the posting?
Well, I take with me a good handful of polishes with me, whenever I travel. A camera, and nail art tools.
For the most part, when I travel, this is what I take with me.

• A set of dotting tools
• Snipper
• Nail file
• Cuticle pusher (if I am leaving for more than a week)
• Cuticle Remover (if I am leaving for more than a week)
• A couple of nail art stickers, in case a friend wants a quick manicure
• Stamping tools
• Stamping plates (a couple if I am not staying too long, and all my plates if I am staying for more than a month)
• Top and basecoat
• Cleanup tools (I never travel with polish remover if I go abroad, but I do bring my handy acetone-bottle from Bornprettystore)
• Max 50 polishes (depending on the length of travel) 1 week - 5 polishes, 2 weeks - 10 polishes etc. When I left for Spain (since I knew I was going to be buying polishes here), I only brought with me 35 polishes.

That's the full list. It might seem like a lot, but I usually travel with only a racksack, and it all fits nicely in there together with all my makeup, clothes and my netbook etc. Never had a problem with it.

But how do I pack things for a long travel?

There are a few things you have to take into consideration when flying. There will be stuff ontop of your bag, so be careful with stuffing too much in the suitcase, go for a hard-shell one. And never pack polishes to the sides, but in the middle. I have learned this from flying more than 40 times these past years.


There are two ways I pack the polishes, and I will show you how it all looks.

The shipping method.

The large bulk method

Inside the box before filling is added

The shipping method I will only use if I am taking with me a couple of polishes. This is great for long journeys on the train, where the racksack might come in contact with other items, and obsticals on the trip. I then place them in a large size bubblewrapper envelope.
I have never had a casualty with this method except for once, when I was flying and one of the bottles leaked a little. The wrapping actually stopped it from leaking more. I don't know what you call this type of wrapping paper, but it's epic.

The large bulk method is for long trips, on planes etc. with a lot of obstacles, and weight. I bought the box a couple of years ago, for storage reasons, and I soon found that they where great for more than that. I had my polishes in this before I got my Helmer, and one day I dropped the box on marble flooring and everything was intact. EVERYTHING. So I started taking them with me on journeys.
I always fill the top with wrapping paper to avoid the polishes from bumping in the lid.
I got the box at Clas Olshon (is that how it's spelled) for 25 NOK. And they are SO worth it.
They was the reason I was able to bring with me 200 polishes to UK when I first moved. Not a single casualty. 

These are the polishes I took with me to Spain. A couple of neons, some glitters I want to use, chromes, and gold, as well as all my holo polishes (there is only 3) and some basic greens and coral.

In the red and black checker printed bag I keep my nail tools and makeup. I was only taking with me the items I knew I would get good use of, and made sure the foundation had SPF in it.

Let me know if you have any questions or want me to show more of how I pack when travelling with nail polish, or anything.

2 year blogiversary!

It seems like it was just a few months ago that I wrote this post about my 1 year anniversary, but when I think about what has happen since then, it feels like a life time ago. I am sure you can all relate.
It is only fitting that this post is being written in Spain, just like the first posts on this blog.

The 2nd of June I am starting in a new job, in Madrid, Spain. I am going to be a gametester for the next 2 months. I am very excited, and very nervous.
Best part is, I get to stock up on Catrice polishes and other stuff that I can't normally get in UK.
I know a flakie or two that I am grabbing asap.

My goal when I started this, was to do about 200 posts ea year, with nail arts, swatches and hauls. It's been such an exciting journey so far, and I do not doubt it will continue to be so.  I launched a G+ page, a YT-channel this year, mostly doing reviews, but I got a few things planned for the third year of this blog.

Let's have a look at what this year as been like on the blog.

Most read post: 

Maybelline Color Show - Street Artist Collection

Readers Favorite:

Damask 

My favorite nerdy manicure: 

Holy Motherboard

Readers favorite nerdy manicure:

Twinpost: Space invaders

Most trippy manicure:

Ripples in the Water

Ripples in the water

This year has been fantastic, I have gotten to know a lot more nail art bloggers, I got a few modelling gigs, my low-buy is looking like it's going to be over after being unemployed for almost 2 years...

I get to try out as a gametester, (even if it's only for 2 months) which has always been a dream of mine, but I didn't think it would ever happen for real.

If you want to have a look at my first post ever, here is a little link. 

I will be back with a manicure that was never posted back when the blog was new, and a redone version of it.  Until next time, have fun girls!

The Girl Behind The Blog

I haven't been blogging a lot lately, cause I have been busy with another project. Modelling.
I was told to keep my talons neutral, so they wouldn't be a distraction from what we where actually trying to shoot, so my nails have been naked quite a lot lately. And that's very sad. Very very sad.

But I got some great pictures to show for it, and I wanted to share them with you.
I have selected one picture from each photo shoot, to ensure variation and to keep it interesting.
Hope you like them!